Battle of Wills

My sweet sassy Brynne has had me cracking up lately! Just last night she ran up to me saying,"Mom I have something to tell you! There is something very mysterious going on, my dads new car is right in the garage, but my dad is not here. It just doesn't make sense! Very mysterious isn't it mom?"

A few days ago, she came in and asked me to take a picture of her because she couldn't believe how fancy she looked. Earlier in the week helping her to get dressed as I suggested different shirts for her to wear she answered "Oh no mom, that just won't do!"

Today was no laughing matter, today it was a battle of wills. Brynne was wearing this pink dress with brown polka dots. She was insisting she needed to wear her "pink and polka dot shoes" with her dress. The only problem is that the "pink and polka dot shoes" are tennis shoes and definitely not suitable for church. She would hear of wearing nothing but these shoes. She cried and took off anything else I put on. As I was curling her hair she had this stubborn look on her face as she gazed into the mirror. I could see the resolve in her eyes and that the wheels were turning. She looked defiantly up at me and said, "Well mom thats just fine, if you don't let me wear the pink and polka dot shoes, then I am just going to wear no shoes." She was calm and oh so defiant.

I tried explaining to her how inappropriate it would be to go to church barefoot. I told her they might not let her practice her part for the primary program in the chapel without shoes. I told her she wouldn't get to have a snack or the church bag with books and coloring pages in it if she didn't wear her shoes. She continued calmly gazing ahead and said well Im just not going to wear anything except for my pink and polka dot ones.

Jeff had to go to church early and I had spent all morning getting the kids ready and wasn't done myself. As he was leaving and taking all the kids with him, I told him where he could find Brynnes shoes. I thought we would bring the 2 pair that matched and she could choose while driving over in the car. When I joined my family in the pew I looked over at my daughter. She looked like a mess. "Where is her bow?" I asked Jeff. He passed it down to me. "Where are her shoes?" "She didn't wear any", he mouths down to me. I couldn't believe it! No shoes and church had started.

I thought about my options and decided it was better to stay at church than leave to get shoes. I wondered what sense Brynne would make of this little incident, and what the ramifications would be. As we arrived at my moms for our Sunday dinner I found out. "Hello grandma! Guess what I went to church barefoot today! They didn't even kick me out!" "Why did you do that?" my mom asked. "I just felt like it" she answered.

I'm toast. This was a battle I clearly had not won!